Moo Lander

Moo Lander – get to know the Cows better (part 1)

Moo Lander is all about milk and cows! If you want milk, you got to have a cow. But what are the cows in our game, how did they came about, how do they manage survival, what is their purpose? This article aims to explain these wonderful, but dangerous creatures and their place in the beautiful world of Moo Lander. Let’s begin.

Let’s get some obvious things out of the way first! We know the cows are Mighty. We know they are Ancient as well. And, we know that they are, in fact, cows – as in, milk-giving, longhorn, mooing, grass-eating cows. It stands to reason their game name: “The Ancient Mighty Cows”. Some additional features may include “alien”, “universal” and “mysterious”, but we will get to that later.

Ancient Origins

The Ancient Mighty Cows are all around the mooltiverse – they can be found in the deepest, farthest reaches of space! They produce the most powerful substance known in existence – the milk. As such, they are extremely strong, durable and mighty. The Landers are aware of all these facts – long ago they managed to tame the Ancient Cows and extract their milk to power up their growing civilization. This is the reason these creatures are so important for The Landers.

Mighty Cows

The cows in Moo Lander are called “Mighty” for a reason. They are the bosses of the game – at the end of each biome (and even some optional spots) there is an Ancient Mighty Cow to be fought and tamed. If you manage to do this, you beam the cow to your home planet for milk production.

But the cows are not without their own defenses. All the cows have certain abilities to use against The Landers, and each individual cow has her own special moves.

Let’s review the common abilities first:

• Ground stomp – The cow stomps the ground with atomic hooves and stuns The Lander. No damage, but almost complete disable of all spaceship systems for several seconds.
• Dash – A quick movement by the cow in any direction. Very fast, but has a cooldown. Good for dodging The Lander’s attacks.
• Moo Wave – Non-lethal cow attack, but a very effective defensive moove. A sound wave pushes everything back – The Lander, as well as any projectiles.
• Spinal Spikes – The most powerful of attacks, whenever the cow jumps upwards, her natural spinal spikes trigger. They do tremendous amount of damage, if timed correctly to hit the target.
• Cow Spit – The primary attack of every cow, the spit is sticky and gooey. It’s a very fast and accurate projectile, doing most of the damage (blockable by the milk shield).
• Grass Healing – The cow can regain almost all of her missing health by eating the special grass found throughout every biome of Moo Lander

 

 

Now comes the cool stuff – the special cow attacks:

• Hornarangs – Special cow attack that uses huge horn as projectiles that home in on The Lander. Very difficult to escape, non-linear trajectory.
• Electricity – Electrifies the player, great damage dealer, stuns for a short duration.
• Frozen Spikes – Special cow attack – another set of spinal spikes that can be shot upward like missiles. In addition to lots of damage, they freeze the target on impact.
• Fire Spread – Heating the ground with lava hooves. Reaching incredible temperatures for a short time, setting the ground on fire for maximum damage.
• Magnetic Pull – A special cow attack that pulls everything toward the cow for easier reach.

The Cow Brain

We’ve developed our own special cow AI in order to fully maximize the challenge to the gamers. The cow brain is powered by this sophisticated AI, giving them lightning speed reactions, enhancing the boss fights. With all these abilities and special moves, each Ancient Cow is unique and requires her own personal approach! Expect glorious cow battles that will be the ultimate test to your every skill, learned while playing Moo Lander. Not only that, but cows have their own “character”, as in – acting scared in some situations, or baiting the player in other. Expect totally different behavior from each of the cows you encounter along the glorious journey.

Just take a look of the cows’ behavior tree:

 

Next up are the cows themselves – follow us with part 2 of the Ancient Mighty Cows showcase article.